Tagged: Queen Victoria

Forget the cold - the worst thing about winter is the dark. You wake up in the dark and get home in the dark. If you work indoors, you may sneak a slither of sunlight at lunchtime if you’re lucky, but that's your lot. The NHS estimates that 1 in 15 people get Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK ...

She's dressed film stars as Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher, and now costume designer Consolata Boyle has turned her creative mind to one of our favourite women in history - Queen Victoria. No stranger to power dressing England's leading ladies, Consolata's exquisite costumes for Universal ...

Summer is in full swing, and there's lots going on at our historic places all across England. As the school holidays begin, our Medieval Knights Season gets underway with live jousts and knights tournaments. New openings at Hailes Abbey, Osborne and St Augustine's Abbey are bringing the stories of o...

Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a bunch of flowers. But during the 19th century, a bunch of flowers could do much more than that – it could profess undying commitment, a refusal, or even act as an accusation of infidelity. The Victorians went as far to develop their own floral language and if ...

As Head Gardener at Osborne I’m often looking for period plants (ones which were available before Queen Victoria’s death in 1901) or specific varieties from the archives. I had a vague memory that one of Queen Victoria’s favourite flowers was the violet, so I decided to do some research.
Ag...